France hosts climate change summit

Political leaders and representatives of key international organizations gathered at the “One Planet Summit” in Paris Tuesday to address the planet’s “ecological emergency” and accelerate international climate actions.

Organized jointly by France, the United Nations and the World Bank, in partnership with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the one-day summit’s focus is to explore how public and private finance can innovate to support and accelerate common efforts to fight climate change.

During the G20 Summit in Hamburg in July, French President Emmanuel Macron had announced that France would host an international summit on climate mobilization on Dec. 12, 2017, two years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement.

More than 50 speakers, including representatives of nongovernmental organizations, entrepreneurs, investors, government officials, local stakeholders and scientists will take part in four round tables in the morning to identify and implement tangible solutions and mobilize public and private funding to enable large-scale their deployment, especially in the most vulnerable countries.

In the afternoon, the summit’s three key themes — “Adaptation” “Mitigation” and “Mobilization” — will be discussed. Each section will be moderated by one of the three co-organizers: Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, and Macron.

On Dec. 12, 2015, a total of 196 parties to the UNFCCC reached the historic Paris Agreement on climate change to cut greenhouse gas emissions and set a global target of keeping the average temperature rise in their countries no higher than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The agreement also saw developed countries commit to contribute 100 billion U.S. dollars a year from 2020 to mitigate climate change impacts in developing countries.

After the United States, one of the world’s largest main greenhouse producers, withdrew from the Paris Agreement this year, Macron pledged to continue the fight against climate deterioration that has triggered a wave of drought, seas rising and torrential rainfall.

Via a web platform “Make Our Planet Great Again” launched in June, Macron invited scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs, associations and NGOs and students from across the globe to join the fight against global warming.